<p>@Senior, I think you’re reading way too much into things. Our high school counselor didn’t “funnel” us anywhere–at our school, counselors don’t even meet with families to develop a college list, they just write the rec letter and send it where the students tell them to. And my daughter wouldn’t skip applying to a school that interests her just because a few top students in the last year or two didn’t get in there. Given how low overall acceptance rates are at some of these schools, you can’t draw any conclusions from a few rejections or from results for just a few years.</p>